News

Netflix just got better on the iPhone with an update designed to take advantage of the larger 16:9 aspect ratio screen on the iPhone 5. This means that when watching many films streaming they fill the entire screen edge-to-edge, with no black borders or letterboxing.

Given the small size of the iPhone screen for movie watching, every millimeter counts. Netflix also optimized the searching and browsing screens to take advantage of the additional display real estate. This improved the process of looking for movie titles and getting information on the wide variety of content available to Netflix subscribers.

Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for the iOS 6 Maps mess in an open letter to Apple customers on Friday. Even more surprising, Cook suggested unhappy iOS users download map apps from Apple competitors like Bing, MapQuest, Waze and Google.

Apple Maps has been widely ridiculed for featuring inaccurate information, mislabeled landmarks and other mistakes. Apple has said its new service will improve over time, but until then disappointed users are stuck using alternatives like Google's web app.

Absinthe co-creator pod2g dropped some disappointing news on the jailbreaking community on Tuesday. The iOS hacker announced he's not working on a jailbreak for iOS 6. Pod2g is mostly responsible for the last untethered jailbreak most jailbreakers are currently using today.

Pod2g's announcement doesn't mean a new jailbreak is not in the works. Another iOS hacker known as Chpwn, tweeted an image of a jailbroken iPhone 5 with Cydia installed over the weekend. This is a good sign that a public iOS 6 jailbreak could be available in a few months.

Google is in no rush to create a standalone Maps app for the Apple App Store, said Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Apple replaced the Google Maps app with its own mapping service with the launch of iOS 6. iPhone 5 owners and users who upgraded their devices have complained that Apple's new map service features too many geographical errors, and is missing many of the Google Maps features that so many iOS users enjoyed.

Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told a small group of reporters in Tokyo that he can't force Apple to use Google's mapping services.

"We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what do I know?" said Schmidt. "What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It's their call."

A light leak issue plaguing some white iPhone 5 models has been confirmed by BGR. The first known complaint was published by MacRumors member "Leotno" on the MacRumors' message board. According to the thread, some white iPhone 5 models are leaking light between the device’s glass display and aluminum antenna.

BGR noticed their white iPhone 5 is also suffering from the light leak problem:

"BGR has confirmed on one of its own units that there is indeed a small crack on some new iPhone 5 units located just below the power button. It’s uncertain at this point if the issue is an isolated one that affects only some iPhone 5 models or if it’s actually a widespread defect.